November 7 is National Stress Awareness Day. But if you’re living with chronic stress, you’re
already aware of it. Stress can cause a wide range of health problems, from
physical conditions like weight loss or gain, high blood pressure, and sleep
disorders, to mental conditions like anxiety and depression. It can impact
every area of your life, and although you probably can’t eliminate it from your
life completely, it’s important to find healthy ways to live with it.
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| Photo: Success Under Pressure |
Below are a few tips to help manage your stress:
Learn to say “No”. One
of the single biggest stressors for most people is simply taking on too much, whether
at work, home, or volunteering in the community. As the saying goes, “If you want something
done, ask a busy person”, but even people with jam-packed calendars should take
a break from doing it all now and then. Saying “no” doesn’t come naturally at
first, but the more you say it (and you can be selective—many of us just like keeping
busy), the easier it becomes! Giving yourself some time to relax and recharge
is healthy…and necessary for your overall well-being!
Practice good time management skills. Remember the panic you felt
as a kid when you waited too long to do a homework project that had been
assigned several weeks earlier? And maybe you were up until midnight or later
the night before the project was due, scrambling to finish? If you were that kid, unless you develop better time
management skills, that feeling won’t go away when you’re an adult. Get
yourself a calendar and keep it updated. Refer to it often. Virtually every
type of device out there has a calendar, so there’s really no reason not to
keep track of bill payments, social events, appointments, and various lists.
Exercise regularly. Between
work and family, your spare time is likely limited. But taking care of your
physical health is important for keeping your stress level in check. Just taking
a brisk walk around the block a few times a week can help keep your weight down
and burn off excess nervous energy. If you have more time, try to fit in a few regular
sessions at the gym or take up a hobby with a physical component, like running
or hiking.
Get enough sleep. It
can be a vicious cycle—if you’re stressed about something, it often keeps you
up at night. Lack of sleep causes you to feel sluggish, cranky, and just not
feeling your best, so you can’t tackle the problem weighing on your mind very
efficiently. If you have trouble sleeping
or just unwinding after a stressful day, try reading (preferably something not work-related),
keeping your mobile device in another room so you’re not tempted to check
messages or scroll through social media every few minutes, or jotting down some
thoughts in a journal. Regular journaling is a great way to get your inner
thoughts and worries down on paper and ease some of your mental burden.
Practice yoga, meditation,
or another relaxing activity. Yoga and meditation are effective ways to
manage stress because they both require focus and concentration on something
other than the worries on your mind. Meditation is the practice of sitting quietly
and focusing on your breath; yoga is an ancient practice incorporating physical,
mental, and spiritual components that focus on breathing and includes a series
of stretches and controlled movements.
Make a regular habit out of managing your stress. It’s easy
to get overwhelmed by the many demands on our time; you’ll be surprised how
much better you’ll feel if you make a conscious effort to reduce or eliminate
some of your major stressors.
